John Ednie Biography
John Ednie was born on 6 January 1876 at 19 Gourlay Street in Glasgow, the son of George Ednie, engine fitter and Jane-Amelia Potts Campbell who had been married in Belfast in 1873. John went to school in Edinburgh, and studied architecture at Heriot -Watt. He won a traveling scholarship which enabled him to visit several European countries. Between 1898 and 1903 he was employed concurrently by John Kinross as an apprentice and W Scott Morton and Company, sharing a home address with his younger brother Andrew B Ednie at 73 Ashley Terrace, Edinburgh. During that period he attended the School of Applied Art, In 1903 he took up a teaching post at Heriot-Watt College while working as principal designer for Wylie & Lochhead. Thereafter he worked in Glasgow, mainly for McCulloch and Co, decorators and glass-stainers and continued to work for Wylie & Lochhead in association with his brother Andrew and with John Taylor. His home address was Rosevale at Bishopton at this time. While his architectural work was influenced by Kinross his interior work and furniture in the earlier 1900s was closely related to that of Mackintosh and was exhibited along with that of Mackintosh at Turin in 1902. In the following year on 15 June he married Lily Rebecca Epton, who was an artist, in Edinburgh. At some stage Ednie himself had studied painting in Paris in the studio of Colarossi. In 1905 he began practice on his own account in Glasgow as architect and interior designer and in 1908 he was appointed head of the Decorative Art Department for evening students at Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College. In his application he undertook to give up his teaching job at Heriot Watt, and also stated that he was terminating his work for Wylie & Lochhead. He also told the College of his intention to continue private practice in Glasgow. The post was subsequently re-titled Principal of the Decorative Arts Trades School. In these later years his work gradually became more conservative. Between 1905 and 1926 he apparently built several houses and decorated many houses and public buildings including cinemas and restaurants. Scott Morton's Filing Book's character comments written in 1910 sees Ednie deemed a 'Big Bug now'. During the College vacations Ednie studied and painted in Holland, France, Cyprus, Rhodes and Egypt but neither he nor his wife exhibited their work at the RSA or RGI at that time, presumably being sold through dealers. In 1926 the Ednies moved to London, and in 1928 he secured the post of Directory of the School of Applied Art, Guiza (or Giza), Cairo, having acquired a particular interest in Egypt from earlier visits. He died at Maadi, Cairo on 18 June 1934 after a long illness which resulted from a bite from a 'strange wild animal'. His wife Rebecca returned to Britain a year after his death but would appear to have returned to Cairo. Illustrations of Ednie's work are to be found in 'The Studio' August 1901, p166; August 1906, pp 254-5; and ? 1908, p165. The furniture in the Presbytery House of John Kinross's St Peter's Fraserburgh appears to be his.
